Not So Different After All

*(A/N): OMG, chapter three already?! I need to pick up the pace! I thought about putting this out next week, but I feel like it's torturing me more than you guys. So here you go, chapter three! Yes a fight does take place in this chapter but I didn't go into much detail into it because right now the focus is relationships, I get the feeling that the next chapter will be the same but please don't skip! Some key things happen here and the next chapter, so please bare with it for now.*

~ Weiss ~

"I can't believe Ruby kicked me out, I still can't even believe she slapped me… I don't know why but whenever I'm near Okami I just do and say things I don't mean to. My words and my body won't obey me; they just do what they want on their own… I didn't want any of this to happen, what is wrong with me?"

"Maybe you're just jealous, that you are upset that I get along so well with someone you've been trying to for so long."

Weiss turned to look at Okami who was just sitting calmly in a chair looking at her. Weiss kept eye contact with the wolf faunus as she walked over to the chair across from her and sat down. "How did you…?"

"Know what was on your mind?" Okami finished for her. "Faunuses have animalistic traits and abilities; just like animals, we can sense people's emotions."

"But you aren't normal; you're not even a faunus! You're a monster! The only reason I'm still in here is because I have nowhere else to go!"

"You know, wolves can smell fear as well." Okami said still wearing a calm expression, but a small smirk briefly crossed her face.

Weiss wouldn't look Okami in the eye any more, she was scared to be in the room alone with Okami and she was afraid that she ruined any chance of a relationship with Ruby. Weiss was becoming restless, she darted her eyes in every direction still avoiding Okami's eyes while she fidgeted her leg and tapped her fingers on the table. She didn't really want to talk to the wolf faunus but she may as well; however, she didn't know what to say. It was quiet and awkward like this for a long time before Okami spoke.

"You are really awkward when it comes to talking to people, aren't you?" Okami asked.

"How dare you! Do you even know who I am? I'm-" Weiss was interrupted by Okami.

"You're Weiss Schnee, the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company." Okami stated. "You would have to be dumb to not make the connection after seeing the Schnee crest on your back."

Weiss was getting furious now. "How the hell does something like you know about me?"

"All Faunuses know about you; either to stay away, or to hurt you."

"Don't speak to me that way! You aren't even normal! You're a monster!"

"You think I asked to be like this?!" Okami snapped losing her calm nature.

"Shut up! A monster like you can never understand what I've been through!"

Okami crossed her arms and glared at her. "Try me."

Weiss was shocked at that response. No one besides Ruby has ever asked about her past, or at least like this. She never talked about her pain, she always felt like it made her weak, but she could tell by Okami's response that she had a lot of pain herself.

"I was never allowed to have friends growing up. To make sure that happened, I've been home schooled until I came here to Beacon. I had no friends what so ever until I met Ruby and became part of team RWBY. Growing up I was never allowed to speak unless spoken to and that never happened. I had to be the perfect girl, the future heiress for my father's company. Hell, I haven't even seen my parents in three years."

"…White is Cold and always Yearning burdened by the royal Test…"

"Huh?" Weiss didn't understand what Okami said, but before she could question it Okami waved it off and continued talking.

"At least they are still around and you got to even know your parents. One of my parents was killed and the other watched me suffer out on the streets before he even confessed that I was his daughter."

Weiss turned and faced Okami in shock to what she said. Okami got rid of her calm expression and replaced it with a sad one; her eyes stared at the table in front of her trying hard to fight back tears. Weiss leaned closer towards Okami with a concerned look on her face. "What do you mean?"

Okami took a shaky breath before she answered. "My mother was a human and my father was a faunus, they fell in love and had me as a kid. They decided that I would live with my father until I was 12, but things didn't go as planned. As you know; it is forbidden for humans and faunuses to have children, so when humans learned she gave birth to a girl with a faunus for a father they were outraged. She gave me to my father and ran off to the forest where her own people hunted her down and slaughtered her like an animal. My father brought me back to his village but he lost all of his desire to take care of me; he literally left me in the streets to be raised by wolves. Many years later he became the new leader of my village, got married, and had another daughter and would toss me a piece of bread whenever he passed me walking down the street. He didn't confess that I was his daughter until he was on his death bed…" Okami clenched her fist and set her jaw in anger. Her past didn't sadden her as much as it enraged her.

"Okami, I had no idea…"

"I fell in love with a girl in my village; the wolf faunuses are dying out so everyone was forced to marry and have children, when they found out I was gay it was the last straw. They wanted me gone because of my mixed blood but they charged me with 'refusal to advance the race' and marked me as a traitor. They chased me and Urufu out of our village and banned us from ever returning there and the Dark Shadows Forest as well…"

Weiss always thought that she had it rough, but after hearing Okami's story she became thankful to have the problems she had rather than Okami's. Weiss felt bad for Okami but she didn't show it in her tone of voice. "If you are half human and half faunus then why are you a monster? Shouldn't you be three quarters human or something?"

"What you saw earlier was me releasing my aura at its full power. I inherited two special abilities from my parents. My mother's aura had insane medical properties but was also able to emit it directly through contact to heal or use it as a weapon against someone. My father was able to change parts of his body to be wolf like to increase strength, speed, and durability and change his whole body that way too but it would drain most of his aura. Since I inherited both of their auras I have an insane amount of aura, but unfortunately I can't control it when I release too much so I have to use as little aura as possible or share half of it with Urufu and I need to focus it before it can be used."

"Now that I think about it that explains a lot. The gash over her eye was really deep and bleeding a lot last night; but now it's completely healed, even the scar looks like it had aged a little. She had my sword wedged in her shoulder not even an hour ago and now she acts like nothing even happened to her. Then her strength and speed… Last night she was barely even able to avoid my attacks and got her because of it, but then today I could barely keep up with her! Her speed almost matched mine when I use my glyphs. When we first started fighting her attacks was strong but I was still able to stand my ground, then suddenly that one hit just sent me flying…"

Okami looked Weiss in the eye and wore a serious expression. "Weiss, why did your feelings towards me change from 'annoyance' to 'hatred' yesterday?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I already told you before; I can sense people's emotions." Okami's tone sounded as serious as the look on her face. "Yesterday when we were heading back to the academy you were only annoyed by me; then last night I felt a sudden change, you were pissed at me and tried to kill me. I would like to know why."

"I-I wouldn't-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Okami yelled so loud it made Weiss flinch. "A SANE PERSON WOULDN'T TRY TO KILL SOMEONE SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE JUST 'ANNOYED' WITH THEM!"

Weiss took a while to respond and when she did she did it with a question. "Okami, what is Ruby to you?"

Okami's face gradually changed from angry to confused. "Ruby? What does Red have to do with this?"

"Everything."

Okami understood and nodded. "She's a kind hearted girl and one of my first friends here. She reminds me of myself when I was younger, that's why I don't want her to get hurt like I did."

"To me Ruby is everything." Weiss said breaking eye contact. "She is my partner, my first friend, the first to care about me, and my first cr-" Weiss stopped herself and blushed crazily.

A mischievous smile spread across Okami's face. "You love Ruby, don't you?"

Weiss didn't answer right away. A few moments passed before she looked Okami in the eye and finally answered.

"Yes, I do." Weiss was now dead serious. "That's why last night when I saw Ruby crying and you were about to kiss her I-…I snapped… Do you have any idea how it feels to love someone and have someone they just met take the person you care so much about away from you? It's heart shattering, it makes you feel like you are completely worthless."

"I can guarantee you that you misunderstood the situation. There were no such things happening."

"I understand, I don't want to talk anymore and I believe we already cleared the air… I'm sorry for calling you a monster, but don't expect me to be friendly towards you." Weiss got up and started to leave but stopped in the doorway when Okami called "Weiss" and turned to face her.

Okami was now standing and had a concerned look on her face.

"Love relationships are all about accepting; your love, friends, and even yourself. To be in a relationship is to accept a person's good side and embrace their bad side, it can't be one or the other. You can't walk into a relationship expecting the other person to do all the work and you do nothing. It's a process of giving and taking, it's all about balance. How do expect to accept your love when you can't accept me for what I am? Until you can accept me as a person, don't expect to be together with Ruby anytime soon… I wish you happiness and the best of luck."

"Thank you, Okami." With that, Weiss left and closed the door behind her. Before Weiss reached for her dorm's door, she slumped against the wall behind her and started to sing.

"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest, of all…

Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest, of all.

Mirror, what's inside me? Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"

Weiss felt tears start to form in her eyes, but she fought them off and continued to sing.

"Mirror, mirror what's behind you? Save me from the things I see. I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me?"

Weiss slid herself to the ground and still kept singing.

"Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all?"

Weiss didn't even bother to try to stop the tears this time, but she still sang the last line.

"I'm the loneliest of…all…"

Weiss pulled her knees up to her chest and put her head down in her folded arms and let the sobs take control of her. She didn't try to pull herself back together until the door to her room swung open and Ruby knelt down directly in front of her. Weiss finally looked into Ruby's big silver eyes and saw that her love was crying as well.

"Have you two settled things for now?" Ruby asked. Weiss nodded still crying heavily and Ruby was quiet for a bit. Ruby cupped Weiss' chin and tilted her head up so she can look at look at her face. She waited for Weiss to open her eyes before she spoke again.

"Weiss, I'm sorry I kicked you out like that… Come on, let's go back inside together."

~ Ruby ~

Ruby was worried when the voices had stopped coming from the room next to theirs. At first they weren't really yelling, Okami spoke calmly but loudly to the point they could hear it through the wall and Weiss without a doubt matched it in volume. Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Urufu thought things were going well, but thing things quickly turned south.

They heard Weiss call Okami a "monster" and start yelling at her; Okami abandoned her calmness and responded angrily as well. The yelling didn't last very long though, as quick as it started it suddenly stopped. The voices were so quiet that the three girls and one wolf had to put their ears to the wall in order to listen.

They heard Weiss talking about her childhood and how difficult it was, but her painful past was nothing compared to Okami's. They heard Okami talking about her parents and the fact that her own kind labeled her as a traitor. They also heard her talk about her aura with all the advantages and disadvantages. No one truly knew how much pain and anger the wolf faunus really had, but this small window gave them a glimpse at a small drop of water in a vast ocean.

After Okami finished talking about her past she started being serious again. Weiss tried to avoid the topic but then Okami started yelling again, causing the eavesdroppers to move away from the wall and caress their ears. The yelling quickly stopped but they decided to leave the two girls privacy for the rest of the conversation.

"Hey Rubes, me and Blake are going to go out for a bit. Will you be ok until we get back?" Yang said trying to sound chipper but failed.

"Yeah, I'll be fine on my own. Besides, Urufu is with me!" Ruby said beaming a smile.

Yang and Blake left the room and Ruby sat on the floor petting Urufu and let her thoughts pass her time.

"Why can't they just get along with each other? They really aren't that different, they both suffered the same kind of pain; they are just two sides of the same coin. So why can't they be friends? Is it really that big of a deal that Okami isn't like us? Or does Weiss not like her for another reason...?"

Ruby heard the door to Okami's dorm close and expected Weiss to walk in, but she didn't.

"Is Weiss not going to come back? What happened in there that made her so upset?" Ruby got up and walked to the door to open it but stopped when she heard Weiss singing.

The song was beautiful, the music matched her voice and you can tell Weiss poured all her feelings in every word; but that's also what made it so hard to listen to, the lyrics were sad and depressing and it was obvious that Weiss felt that same way. The song filled with Weiss' heart ache made Ruby cry while she listened.

"Weiss, I'm right here… I want you to let me in, but I know you don't know how… There are people who really do care about you, I care about you. I'm right here for you, you aren't alone… I love you so much that it breaks my heart to hear you this sad and believe that no one cares for you… You will never be alone when I am with you…but will you be willing to accept me?"

Ruby opened the door and found Weiss on the ground crying heavily. She knelt down in front of the broken heiress and used all her will power to try and stop her own crying. "Have you two settled things for now?"

Weiss nodded with heavy sobs.

"I want to take all your pain and bare it on myself…but will you let me?"

Ruby cupped her hand under Weiss' chin and lifted it so she could see her face clearer, once Weiss opened her eyes she spoke again. "Weiss, I'm sorry I kicked you out like that… Come on, let's go back inside together."

Ruby brought Weiss inside their dorm and the heiress just collapsed on her bed and continued to cry. After about thirty minutes, Weiss finally calmed herself down to just taking deep, shaky breaths. Ruby looked over towards Weiss from their desk and finally got the courage to speak.

"Weiss, I'm really sorry I made you do all of that. It's obvious that it hurt you, I'm so sorry."

"It's ok Ruby, you did it for a reason." Weiss responded before taking another deep breath. "It was kind of good for me in a way. I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

The room fell silent for what felt like hours. Ruby honestly thought that Weiss fell asleep and was proven wrong when she was startled by Weiss' voice.

"Ruby…do people think I'm heartless?"

The question took Ruby by surprise; she never knew the heiress was ever concerned by what others thought. Ruby thought thoroughly about the question before giving an honest answer.

"I guess some people do, but not everyone. Okami and our friends may wonder about it at times; but our team knows you have a heart, you're just too afraid to show it to others."

"Then what about you?"

Ruby wasn't sure how to answer that, so she didn't.

Weiss turned away from Ruby and stared out the window. "I thought so…"

"I know you have a heart, it's not very big but it's one of the warmest ones I know…"

"I can care about people too you know, I can accept people too."

Ruby didn't know why but she let her thought slip out. "Really? Because it doesn't seem like it at all."

Weiss turned her head back towards Ruby, her eyes were wide in shock and some sadness as well. Her tone sounded irritated but her voice was weak. "What are you saying?"

"You don't accept Okami as a person; she never wanted to be the way she is. She was born into it and it's who she is; no matter how bad you treat her, it won't change her at all. You attacked her without a second thought and even called her a monster. You don't even accept me and I'm your own partner…you say you can be caring and accepting, but yet you don't show any effort that you are." Ruby said with great seriousness in her voice.

Weiss looked like she was about to cry again. "But I can! I care about you and I do accept you! I always have!"

"I'll believe that when you prove it."

"But how?"

"By accepting Okami and showing you care about her, then I'll believe that you have a heart." With that, Ruby grabbed Urufu and walked over to Okami's dorm.

"Why did I do that? She was obviously in so much pain and I just rubbed salt into the wound! Why am I such an idiot at times? Maybe Okami would know what to do…"

Ruby was about to knock when the door swung open and a worried Okami almost trampled over her. "Oh, hey Ruby! How's Weiss doing?"

"She's still pretty upset…Is something wrong? You seem kind of in a hurry…" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I need money to buy food for me and Urufu plus I need to get a replacement for my weapon, so I'm working part time at The White Rose Café. I fell asleep and now I'm running late for work."

"Oh, I see. Is there anything I can do for you while you're gone?" Ruby asked with a kind smile.

"Sure! Can you make sure Urufu has food and water and take her for a walk? I would really appreciate it if you would." Okami said then she looked at the time. "SHIT, I'M SUPPER LATE! I gotta go, see ya later!" And with that Okami zoomed down the hall.

"Take care!" Ruby called out after her and stepped inside the empty room.

"That's great that Okami is working part time in a café, I kinda imagined her working as a mercenary if she ever need money. I guess all people have times when they need to do something nor-"

Ruby stopped the thought as an idea popped into her head. She thought it over carefully to make sure that it can't go wrong in any way. She smiled while she decided that it wouldn't backfire and started to set things in motion.

She grabbed Urufu's leash and ran back over to her dorm surprising Weiss when she swung open the door. "Weiss, start getting ready! We are going to go out tonight!"

Weiss looked at the young girl with a confused expression. "Where are we going?"

"We're taking Urufu out for a walk in the town, and while we were out there I wanted to tryout this place someone told me about." Ruby responded with a smile.

Weiss raised a questioning brow. "Does this place have a name?"

Ruby looked Weiss in the eye and the smile she wore grew bigger. "The White Rose Café."

~ Okami ~

"It's already bad enough that this place is busy, now those jackasses are harassing those poor girls." Okami thought as she looked over her shoulder to see a large group of guys completely surrounding a table that seated what sounded like two girls and a dog.

Okami started to walk over to the group of boys but manager grabbed her arm to stop her. "You know if you get in another fight the owner will fire you, Okami. You can't afford to get into trouble, please do it without your fists backing you up. You're the only kid here I actually like."

Okami gave her friend a smile. "Don't worry Jacob, I'll just ask them to leave."

Okami had been working at the café for about a year; Jacob found her wandering around in the woods near by his house. The guy felt bad for her and talked his boss into hiring her, he also offered Okami a place to stay but she insisted on staying in the woods. Due to her masculine figure and intimidating appearance at times, her boss has her wear the men's uniform and have her scare off any unwanted people; unfortunately, sometimes those people resist and attack and her boss doesn't like that.

Okami tapped one of the men on the shoulder. "Excuse me, sir? You are disrupting our guests; I need to ask you and your friends to leave."

The man and the rest of the group stopped and looked at her. "This isn't any of your business, mutt! We just want to show these young girls a good time, stay out of it."

"He did NOT just call me a fucking mutt…"

Okami clenched her teeth and set her jaw, but she kept her tone calm. "Sir, if I need to ask again I will use force."

The guy fully turned towards her and grabbed her longer hair and pulled her head back to look up at him. "Exactly what are you going to do, pretty boy? Call the police? Ha, they would only find your lifeless body by the time they get here."

"Okay, he grabbed me first. Now I can claim this as self-defense."

Okami whispered soft enough so that only the one guy could hear her. "I'm sorry that after I do this we will have to stop. If you want to continue it later I get off work around 6."

"What are you ta-" He was interrupted when Okami punched him in the face causing him to fall over the railing and onto the side walk. The other guys got ready to attack her but stopped when the first guy spoke. "I'm fine… I understand your language; we'll leave for now but don't expect to never see us again. Come on guys, let's go." At his command the rest of the guys peacefully left the café, Okami didn't start to relax until they turned the corner and were out of sight.

"Good riddance, at least one problem is solved. I wonder if those girls are okay."

"We didn't ask you for your help, we would have been fine on our own." Said a familiar voice.

Okami turned her head in shock to see Weiss staring at the wolf faunus with Ruby sitting across from her holding a leash with Urufu at the end. Okami was surprised to see them there at her café, but she was more worried about Weiss. Her face was expressionless and her eyes were looking millions of miles away, an expression Okami was too familiar with, which could mean one of three things; 1.) she is pissed, 2.) she is deep in thought, or 3.) a combination of both.

"Weiss, stop being so rude!" Ruby said to the heiress before turning towards the wolf faunus. "Thank you so much Okami, those guys were giving us a lot of trouble."

"Yeah, now I may get some of that trouble after work." Okami said giving them an angry expression. "What are you guys even doing here?"

"Well, Weiss was still in a bad mood so we took Urufu for a walk and decided to see you at work." Ruby said not meeting her eyes.

"She's upset so you brought her here to see me? I'm sorry, but that wasn't the best idea."

"In my defense, I didn't know you worked here until now." Weiss said with no emotion in her voice.

"Yep, she's pissed. She's really, really pissed."

"It's 5:30 right now and I get off at 6, why don't you guys wait for me?" Okami asked while turning to get back to work.

"Sure, no problem!" Ruby called after her.

"Great, those jackasses are back now…" Okami thought while six guys walked up to her and her friends. They were walking back to Beacon and were a good ten blocks away from the café she worked at. Okami quickly looked to the two girls and spoke. "Whatever you do don't get involved, I'll be fine as long as no one pulls out a gun at me."

Ruby looked to Okami with a "what?" but before she could protest Okami launched herself at the group of guys.

Okami was doing fine just like she said. In no time there were five guys lying on the ground. Okami looked around for the sixth one when she got hit on the head with something that was metal.

The hit was well placed and strong enough to knock Okami to the ground. When she looked up she saw a gun pointed to her face, and she closed her eyes expecting the worse…but nothing happened. Okami obviously knew that when the gun didn't fire that one of the girls stepped in, but she didn't know what the loud sound of ice forming came from. When she opened her eyes, she saw something unexpected.

Weiss was the one who stepped in and froze the attacker.

"What's with the sudden kindness?" Okami asked with amazement in her voice.

Weiss turned to face the wolf faunus who was still on the ground. "I've been thinking about what you said, Ruby also told me things similar to what you told me earlier. I've thought about the story of your past comparing it to mine, and I compared our personalities as well. The whole time I've been trying to make a decision and I've finally made it."

"And what is your decision?" Okami asked with a raised eyebrow.

Weiss put away her sword and extended her hand offering it to Okami. "I've decided that despite our races and our abilities, I believe that we're not that different after all. And…I've decided to accept you as my friend, if you are willing to accept me that is."

Okami let out a huge smile and nodded in approval. "You and I actually agree on something, and I'm willing to take your offer." With that Okami took Weiss' hand and the two new friends smiled happily at each other.

*(A/N): Holy shit, Weiss has a nice side?! What drugs was I on when I wrote this and where can I get some more?! So the next chapter is going to deal with Yang, then after that's when the three different plots are going to start clashing together and hopefully more fights. I'll admit that Yang is kinda hard to write, but I guess it's worth a shot.*